Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Mayor Len Stone interviewed

Budget. " We need to live within our means and have a reserve set-up." ...What's available? A choice of tax measures, police contract outsourcing, cuts (such as Senior Center, meals on
wheels, Resource Center, library, PCTV 26). For years our city financial planning has been
status quo, with periodic cash infusions.

What the city is doing to improve: 1) Developing an Economic Plan through a consultant to use available resources (land, structures). 2) Becoming proactive (not just reactive) toward development. Example, the Beach Boulevard project, which includes a hotel, new library, high density housing, and underground parking. Beach Boulevard land mitigation will be completed prior to a developer building the site. 3) Mayor Stone is working with the Economic Development Committee to better serve and promote sports events. "We need to be smart with land use."

519 Anon what do you expect? All the big decisions were made decades ago. All that's left are the scraps in a down-at-the-heels small town. That's a political career-ender, so we meet and fall for the flavor-of-the-month over and over. Life goes on.

"The report highlights two policy options most likely to increase dense, Manhattan-style urban development, without exceeding the traditional limits of federal authority. Those options are eliminating the home-mortgage interest deduction and conditioning future federal aid of all kinds on local adherence to “smart growth” principles. Of these, I think the second is the most likely to be implemented. The built environment report also says that the most convenient bureaucratic channel through which to manage such federal pressure is the Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

Oh he did, did he? Big deal. It's too little, too late. This council already stepped in a big pile of it. The plover zealots brought in the USFWS, Coastal Commission and the State. They're not going away.Paid parking is tied to the ploverprotections which now include the expandable corral. These are not yet breeding plovers on LMB so all that was ever necessary was some signs on the beach but this and previous councils botched the whole issue. For those who want to hide behind the "No money in the city budget" excuse...the money will be found elsewhere. Not everyone is as inept as this council.

I like Len but he and Nihart totally screwed us over when he allowed police outsourcing to be taken off the table until December. All supposedly to settle contracts with no real wage cuts?

Why have they all been delaying and hiding the report and throwing wrenches in it ever being considered. Are they getting pressure from Tasa? Because from what I hear the sworn officers would lover to be part of the Sheriff Dept. I think we just lost 2 officers to them recently.

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